CHAPTER EIGHT

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Warning: A few curses.

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Mark visibly tenses beside her and the sound of the name, and she turns to him.

"Would you take her to day care please?" She asks softly, gesturing to Paige, and Mark nods.

"C'mon sweet pea," he says, encouragingly.

"Bye, mommy," Paige says sadly, and Lexie bends down to kiss the top of her head.

"Bye, baby."

Paige senses something is wrong instinctively, but Mark just picks her up, chatting away as he heads for the day care centre.

"What's her name?" Scott asks, and Lexie snorts.

"You don't deserve to know."

"Come on, Lexie," he says, reaching for her arm, but she pulls away sharply.

"What do you want, Scott?" She demands angrily. "I'm running late."

"I was here yesterday, and I saw you in the parking lot with her…" he trails off, his eyes on the floor. "I thought you had an abortion." His eyes flit to hers when he stops talking, and somehow he looks vaguely hurt, though she can't fathom why.

"Well I didn't. I tried multiple times to tell you that, but you wouldn't take my calls. I really don't understand what you're doing here now," she says, trying to keep her voice angry and demanding to make sure he doesn't hear the fear, because all she can think is that there is only one reason that he'd be here now, and it scares her more than anything.

"I want to know my daughter," he answers softly, and she swallows thickly, because there it is.

"She's not your daughter."

She manages to get the words out in the middle of what she's almost sure is a panic attack, which she would be proud of if she wasn't so petrified.

"She has a dad, a real one, one who loves her, so please, leave us alone," she continues desperately, trying to calm down and turning to leave, but he walks with her.

"I didn't even know she existed until yesterday," he tries again. "I thought you had an abortion," he repeats, and she rolls her eyes angrily.

"No, you threw some money at me and hoped I would get an abortion, before disappearing. So you do not get to barge into our lives now and fuck everything up."

She's not angry, she's livid, because she finally has everything she could ever want, and he's threatening it.

"Lexie, I just want to know her. Don't I at least have a right to know her?"

"No!" she yells, trying to ignore the way people are starting to stare at her. "You lost that right. Please, just leave us alone."

She stalks away at that, leaving him standing in the middle of the lobby, and it feels good.

..

She's having a quite pleasant lunch in the cafeteria alone, trying to forget the conversation that has been replaying in her head for hours, when she's interrupted.

"Heard you and Scott got into it in the lobby," Mark says, as he slides into the seat beside her.

"Urgh, how do you know?"

"Lexie Grey swearing up a storm in the middle of the hospital? That's A-grade gossip," he smiles proudly.

"My sister, the potty mouth." Meredith shakes her head as she drops her tray and sits beside them. "Who'd have known?"

"Does everyone know?" Lexie groans, and Meredith shrugs. "What did Scott have to say?" She inquires, taking the plastic lid off her salad.

"He wants to know her," Lexie spits.

"He is her father," Meredith points out, and Lexie shakes her head fiercely. "No. No he's not. He was not the one up every two hours every night when she was two months old, and he wasn't the one who stayed by her side for days when she had her appendix out. That was Mark. How would you feel, if Zola's birth parents came up to you and wanted to be a part of her life?" She demands.

"That's different," Meredith disagrees.

"No, it's not, and I'm done talking about this," she declares, standing up angrily.

She gets out of the cafeteria and halfway down the hall before he stops her.

"Lexie," he calls, and she stops, because if anyone can make her feel better…

He pulls her into an on call room, and although she knows it isn't for sex she really wishes it was.

"It's going to be okay," he tells her, his tone calm; confident.

"She's yours. She's yours in every conceivable way… He does not get to show up now and take her away."

"She's not going anywhere, okay?" he says, a hand on either side of her face as he forces her to look at him. "She's not going anywhere."

She nods reluctantly, taking a deep breath.

"Would it be the worst thing in the world for her to know her father?" He asks softly, well aware he's likely to anger her, just moments after calming her down.

"Yes!" She says, irritated. "You are her father. She has your laugh, your sense of humour… she gets that same sparkle in her eyes when she knows she's done something wrong. You are her father, and you're the best father in the world. Why would she want a downgrade?"

"Maybe it's something she needs to decide for herself. He's never going to change what we have, Lex. She'll always be my daughter, and I'll always love her, but surely she has a right to meet him, to know him?"

She doesn't want to concede yet, but she sees his point. "I'll think about it," she agrees reluctantly, and Mark smiles.

"Great. Now that we've got that sorted…" he smirks, reaching behind him and locking the door.

"Mark…" she smiles, shaking her head. "You're incorrigible."

"We have an empty on call room, Lex. We can't waste it."

"You do have a point…" she agrees, grinning wickedly.

..

He knows Scott's unexpected arrival in their lives has Lexie on edge.

Half the hospital knows, because she spent ten minutes in the most crowded area of the building yelling at him.

She isn't exactly subtle.

But he has to be, because she's stressed enough for the both of them.

Their life is perfect; he has more than he could have ever imagined possible, and he hates the idea of losing it at least as much as Lexie does, but someone has to be the voice of reason and it's already clear it's not going to be her.

Paige deserves everything, and he's known it from the moment he laid eyes on her. He has spent, and will spend his life making sure she has every opportunity she could ever want, and it therefore seems hypocritical to deprive her of knowing her father. Her real father.

Lexie is adamant that biology is irrelevant, and he agrees, mostly.

Except for the part where Paige has father who shares her DNA, who apparently wants to step up and do the right thing, even if he is four years too late.

He doesn't know how to deprive Paige of something that one day she could want.

They haven't told her about her paternity; mostly because she's too young for the conversation to do anything other than confuse her, but also because he wouldn't know what to say.

He had parents who made it clear on multiple occasions that they never really wanted a kid, and he doesn't want Paige's knowledge of Scott to break her heart the way his parents broke his.

He wants her to have everything he never had; he doesn't want her to feel the kind of disappointment he felt, and keeping the truth from her really seemed like the best option.

But now Scott's here, and the perfect little world they've fought to construct for Paige is crumbling, and if Scott is wanting to be a real father, he can't keep that from her.

..

Scott is waiting in the lobby the next day when she arrives for work, and at Mark's insistence she takes a deep breath and approaches him, trying to remain calm.

"Where is she?"

She takes small satisfaction in the fact that he still doesn't know her name.

It's petty; she can't help it.

"It's Monday, she has preschool," Lexie replies smoothly, and he nods.

"Right."

"She's four," Lexie adds, as he mulls this over. "Look. I am willing to give you a lunch. You, me, Paige and Mark. My next day off is next week, on Friday. Are you free?"

He doesn't even think about it before nodding. "Yes. I mean, I don't know, but I will be."

"Fine," she says, almost feeling guilty for being such a bitch. "You can pick the place, just text me the address."

"Okay. Thank you, Lexie," he says sincerely. "Paige is a nice name," he adds and she smiles.

"I'll see you then."

..

It's later that night, when Paige is asleep and they're getting ready for bed that they finally get a moment alone.

"We're having lunch with Scott next Friday; the three of us," Lexie tells him, and he squeezes her hand.

"I'm proud of you," he murmurs, kissing her softly. "You don't need to worry about anything. Paige is not going anywhere."

He hopes she doesn't notice that the words are partly spoken to reassure himself.

She doesn't seem to, but he is unable to decipher the look on her face, which is such a rare occurrence that it has him worried.

"Are you still angry at him?" He inquires, confused.

"Not really," she exhales softly before continuing. "Because if he'd done the right thing, we might not be here. I'm just… I'm afraid," she smiles meekly, embarrassed.

"Me too," he whispers honestly, and she looks up at him quickly, surprised.

"But we don't need to be. We're not going to lose her. We'll just go to lunch and go from there, okay?"

She nods haphazardly, and he pulls her into a hug.

"It's going to be fine."

..

Lunch is doomed from the start.

Mark knows this, and it's only confirmed when Paige emerges from her room and says she doesn't want to go to lunch, she wants to go to the zoo, because she knows that any rare day that both her parents are at home is spent doing something fun.

"We'll go to the zoo after, princess," he promises and she beams.

"And we can see the giraffes?"

"We can spend the whole afternoon with the giraffes," he smiles.

God, the feeling he gets when he sees her grin, such completely and pure happiness in her eyes, is the best feeling in the world.

When they get to the restaurant Scott's chosen, a bistro that is so not appealing to a four year old, he almost laughs.

Rookie.

No playground, no kids menu – big mistake.

Scott agreed not to tell Paige that he's her father, so as to not confuse her, so she doesn't even understand why she has to come.

It has disaster written all over it.

..

When Paige taps on her shoulder and moves to whisper in her ear Lexie knows what's coming.

"Excuse us, we'll be right back," she says, taking Paige's hand and shooting Mark an awkward glance over her shoulder as she searches for the bathrooms.

"Can we go to the zoo yet, mommy?" Paige asks, and Lexie smiles.

Her determination and stubbornness is a trait her daughter picked up from Mark, she's sure.

"Not yet, sweetie. Soon."

"Why are we having lunch with Scott?" She asks, dragging Scott's name out.

"He's a friend of ours, Paigey. It's not much longer, I promise."

"But daddy doesn't even like him, he has his angry face!"

"His angry face?" Lexie confirms, watching as her daughter frowns and pouts adorably in imitation.

"Yeah. Like he gives Uncle Alex when he talks to you."

..

"She's something," Scott says, as he watches Mark and Paige walk towards the car together.

"She's perfect," Lexie replies defensively. "Have you got what you wanted yet, Scott? Can you leave us alone now?"

"She's more like him than she is me," he notes, seemingly hurt by the realisation, and Lexie sighs.

"He's been there, Scott. He's been the prominent male in her life since she was born, and she looks up to him. She emulates him."

"Can I… Can I see her again, in a little while?"

"You can't just call every so often because you feel guilty for not being a father. She's a child. She needs stability. She can't have this man dropping in and out of her life to make himself feel better for abandoning her. So you either step up and be her father, or you leave and don't come back."

She lets her words sink in and when she sees that they have, she grabs her purse and slings it over her shoulder. "You have my number if you chose option one."

She's three steps away when he grabs her elbow.

"Will you send me an email, every so often, tell me how she is?" He asks softly. "I get that you're her parents, and that I missed out on that, and I don't think I can do it, be a father… So would you just tell me how she's doing?"

"Yeah. Absolutely."

"Thanks, Lexie."

"Sure."

She doesn't even feel guilty for being relieved.

..

They stand in front of the giraffes for hours.

When they hit the twenty minute mark Lexie's sitting, watching as Mark circles the exhibit with Paige, almost as excited as she is.

"You don't want to go see any other animals?" She verifies, and Paige looks horrified by the mere suggestion.

"No! Look, mommy!" She points to one of the giraffes, who is now moving, and she follows it from across the glass.

"Mark!" Lexie calls, grabbing her stomach.

He's at her side immediately, petrified that something's wrong, that all the stress of the last few weeks has affected the baby.

But instead she wordlessly takes his hand and places it over her stomach, and he feels it.

"Wow."

Lexie shares his smile, which is interrupted by Paige.

"What? What?" She asks, overly excited, and unhappy that she's being ignored.

"Your baby sister's kicking, princess," he tells her, taking her small hand and placing it on Lexie's abdomen.

"She likes giraffes too!" Paige declares happily, and Mark grins as Lexie prepares to contend with her statement.

"It's going to be a boy," Lexie tells her daughter, who shakes her head with determination.

"It's a girl. A girl. I'm gunna have a sister."

"It's a girl," Mark agrees, and Lexie shakes her head.

"You'll see."

..

She wants to have a son, desperately.

She wants to have a little Mark, a boy with his eyes and his wicked smirk, who'll probably drive her to an early grave out of pure stress, but she wants a son who she looks at and sees Mark.

She loves Paige, more than anything, and she knows she'll love any other daughters she has just as much.

But she wants to have Mark's son.

..

"I want to find out the sex," she tells Mark, who frowns.

"We said we were going to wait, let it be a surprise," he says, confused at her sudden change of heart.

"Well I changed my mind. I want to know. Besides, if we want to make it a surprise we won't even be able to look at him because I can tell the sex from an ultrasound," she points out and he knows she's right, but he's still concerned.

"Should I be worried that you have your heart set on a boy?" He queries, and she shakes her head.

"No. It's not that I don't want a girl, I just know it's a boy."

"You want it to be a boy," he amends, because he knows the whole guess-the-sex thing has got out of hand, to the point where she refuses to admit there's a fifty-fifty chance of a girl.

"I want to give you a son, is there something wrong with that?" she asks, defensive.

"No, but it shouldn't be so important to you, and if it is and we have a girl, I don't want to think about what's going to happen, Lex. You can't get so attached to having a boy."

"I just…" her face crumples and she starts to cry, cursing hormones for getting the best of her. "I want you to be able to see yourself in this baby. I want to have a boy just like you, so you can see him and know that you're his dad. I know you love Paige, and you'll love her just as much as any baby we have together, but I want to give you a child who's so completely you." She's sobbing now, and he cradles her against his body, stroking her hair.

"Lexie…" he sighs, kissing the top of her head. "Every child we have is going to look like me, boy or girl. The Sloan genes are strong; good luck trying to have a kid that looks like you ever again."

She laughs through her sobs, and his heart feels so much lighter at the sound.

"I love Paige because she's just like you, and I see you in her every day. But I also see me, when she talks back; when won't back down until you give her what she wants…" he chuckles. "You don't need to worry."

"Can we find out the sex anyway?" She asks, pleadingly. "I want to see him, or her, and see that everything's okay."

He smiles. "Maybe Paige gets that not backing down thing from you."


A/N:

Thanks for reading :)